THE VICTOR’S MENTALITY 22 (Guard Your Identity in Christ)

“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,”
‭‭Ephesians 6:13-14 NKJV

By God’s grace, for several weeks, we’ve been exploring one of these armors, the Belt of Truth. We’ve said a lot about this armor and how we can fasten it around our waist to keep winning.

In the last article, I shared an overview of what righteousness is, defining it as: Righteousness is the divine standard of what is right before God, perfectly embodied in the character and actions of Christ, who is our Redeemer. It is not a product of human effort or morality but the very nature of Christ that qualifies Him to be our Savior and that now covers the believer as spiritual armor.

in today's article, we’ll look at what a breastplate protects and the implications for the believer. The breastplate in a Roman soldier’s armor protects the heart. We know the heart is one of the most vital organs in the body, if not the most important. Biologically, its failure poses an immediate threat to life—it sustains life through blood circulation as it pumps blood throughout the body.

What does this imply spiritually? It tells us that the state of our heart determines the quality of life we live. It also determines our activeness or inactiveness toward God. Biologically, the heart is central to all other body systems—the brain, kidneys, lungs, muscles, and more depend on it. This is similar to what the Bible says about the heart: “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23 NLT). The heart is the core of the believer’s life, the seat of the whole soul—the mind, emotions, and will. It’s also the seat of the conscience.

At this point, I feel it’s important to clarify the difference between the soul and the heart to avoid confusion and understand the heart’s function. The soul, in Hebrew (Nephesh) and Greek (Psyche), refers to the life or being of a person—the living self. It’s used to imply a person’s entire self in relation to God and eternity.

We can verify this in Ezekiel 18:20:
“The soul who sins shall die…” (NKJV)
“The person who sins is the one who will die…” (NLT)
The NKJV calls it “the soul who sins,” while the NLT says “the person who sins.” This drives home the point that the soul is the person’s living self. The heart, however (Lev in Hebrew, Kardia in Greek), represents the inner being—the center of thoughts, emotions, will, affections, and intentions. It’s where a person reasons, chooses, and makes commitments.

We see this in Proverbs 23:7:
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he…” (NKJV)
The heart is the seat of the soul. Yes, your soul comprises the mind, will, and emotions, but what drives these components is the heart. The heart sets the direction—what you love, desire, or believe.

For those familiar with a mechanical engine, think of the soul as the whole engine and the heart as the spark plug or control box that drives its direction. I’m sharing this to highlight how crucial your heart is, which is why God shields it with His very nature—righteousness. As we’ll see later, the enemy targets your heart. But if we always wear the breastplate of righteousness, we’ll remain in victory.

As I mentioned in the article, this righteousness is the life of Christ, through which He defeated the devil. Let’s go deeper into the heart: “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10 NKJV). It’s through the heart that we believe in God for salvation. This shows why the heart is the devil’s first target. He hardens the hearts of sinners, religionists, and those who aren’t born again to prevent them from believing in the glorious salvation in Christ. Our belief system is a function of our heart (Proverbs 23:7).

Faith isn’t generated in the mind. While what your mind focuses on can lead to faith, pondering God’s Word alone won’t generate faith. That pondering must translate into a response in your heart, which comes with surrender to God’s Word.

Your heart must admit and accept that God’s Word is truly for you. This requires a tender, humble heart ready to accept God’s Word as the authority over your life. A hardened, proud, or distracted heart can twist or reject the Word, even if the mind has engaged it.

We see an example in Matthew 13:15: “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them”

Why didn’t these people receive the truth? Not because they lacked information for their minds to ponder, but because their hearts had grown dull.

So, I ask you today: What is the condition of your heart? The righteousness of Christ fixes the heart.

In the next article, we’ll continue to explore the importance of the heart so we won’t be careless with it and can take adequate care of it.

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